


Eight Deaths

by papersandals (laronmi)



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Canonical Character Death (Kind of), Community: badbadbathhouse, Gen, Humor, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-25
Updated: 2012-11-25
Packaged: 2017-11-19 13:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laronmi/pseuds/papersandals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yosuke can't stop dying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eight Deaths

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on the P4 kinkmeme. [Originally posted here.](http://badx2bathhouse.livejournal.com/543.html?thread=1864223#t1864223) Prompt was:
>
>> Yosuke can't stop dying.
>> 
>> (someone had to do it.)

The first time happened in Yukiko's castle. It wasn't Yosuke's fault, really, since there wasn't any way any of them could have anticipated the shadows being able to use electric spells. It also wasn't Yosuke's fault in the slightest that they were intelligent, ganging up on him after they realized his weakness for the element.

Still, seeing Yosuke sprawled out on the red plush carpet—eyes closed, wrenches resting in his limp hands—was enough to send Chie and Souji into a panic. He couldn't tell Chie to leave and pull back when Yosuke's body—maybe corpse? Oh, God, please not corpse—was still vulnerable, but getting her to calm down enough to work with him and defeat the shadows took some time and a lot of effort. By the time they were done with the battle, Souji had used up a great deal of his mental reserves, and Chie looked physically worn out.

And Yosuke was—not dead. He couldn't be dead.

"Is he dead?" Chie asked him, voice trembling. Souji didn't answer her, opting instead to set his golf club on the carpet and go over to Yosuke's prone form and check his pulse.

Except Souji didn't really know how to check pulses.

After a few moments, Chie apparently tired of fidgeting and shoved Souji aside, putting her fingers on his wrist.

"Oh, thank goodness," she said, her entire body sagging in relief. "He's still alive! Although," she added after a pause, "his pulse is really slow. We've got to get him back!"

Souji nodded, and with Chie's help, they managed to carry Yosuke's body with them to the entrance of the castle where Teddie was waiting.

"Sensei," Teddie yelled, looking anxiously between him and Chie and Yosuke's motionless form between the two of them. "W-wait, is that Yosuke?! No, Yosuke!"

Before either he or Chie could say anything, Teddie ran towards them and fell to the ground, large tears spraying from his eyes. It would have been funny, Souji thought, if the situation wasn't so grim.

"Yooooosukeeeee," Teddie cried. "Not you too! You promised! You promised!"

With that, he buried his face in Yosuke's uniform, dampening it in a matter of seconds. It was somewhat impressive.

"Um, Ted," Chie began, but then Yosuke groaned and twitched. Chie yelped in surprised and dropped his legs, and Souji, not prepared to suddenly bear the weight of Yosuke's torso, dropped his hold on Yosuke as well.

"Augh," Yosuke said as he fell onto the hard stone cobbled road that made up the entrance to the castle. Teddie, seemingly unaware that Yosuke was not dead, cried harder.

Souji and Chie remained silent as Teddie bawled into Yosuke's now soaking wet clothes while Yosuke weakly began to curse.

"Sooooo," Chie said at last, "I guess we're done for the day?"

Souji sighed and pushed his glasses up.

\----

The second time was Yosuke's fault. The bathhouse heat had everyone on edge, and the shadows were more aggressive than anything the team had ever encountered in the castle. To top it off, the coals in the bathhouse radiated so much dry heat that it almost instantly evaporated the sweat and burned their skin. 

With the confusing way the bathhouse passages presented themselves, they had to pass by the coals a lot. Souji gave orders to stick close and not to wander off alone, which turned out to be harder than expected with how the steam acted as a fog, reducing visibility and making progress even slower.

The bathhouse, Souji decided, must have been what hell was like.

After two floors, they ran across a stretch of hallway far away from the coal bunkers, and Souji motioned for them to take a breather, ineffective as rest was in the place. When the team gathered around him, however, he noticed immediately that something was wrong.

"Um," Yukiko said, fanning herself and not looking any more relieved from the heat as the rest of them, "Where's Yosuke-kun?"

Souji sighed and signaled everyone to backtrack. They eventually found him near the stairs, passed out on the floor with a gaggle of shadows around him.

Chie and Yukiko shouted out, but Souji had prepared himself to give out commands in case any of them fell. He calmed the girls down, worked with them to destroy the shadows, then knelt down by Yosuke's body.

He checked Yosuke's pulse and knew how to do it. The night after Yosuke's first incident, Souji had googled basic first aid and studied it for weeks.

Yosuke had a pulse. That was good. It wasn't terrifyingly slow. That was also good.

Souji's expression, however, must not have been quite as good, because after a few seconds, Yukiko and Chie knelt down next to him.

"Is he all right?" Chie asked, and Souji blinked in confusion before nodding.

"Thank goodness," Yukiko said. "Should I heal him?"

Souji shook his head and reached into his pocket, grabbed a revival bead, then smashed it with his fingers in front of Yosuke's nose.

The fumes instantly began to spread, and Souji wrinkled his nose at the smell. Yosuke wrinkled his nose, too, and began to groan.

"Anyone get the number of the truck?" he mumbled, and Souji wiped the remains of the bead on the floor as Yukiko sighed in relief and cast a healing spell.

\----

The third time was a freak accident. They were in the strip club, helping Teddie get used to battle, when Yosuke found a chest in one of the rooms.

"Aha," he said triumphantly, and opened the chest.

Or at least he tried to. The chest sprang open, uppercutted him in the jaw, and then snapped closed again as Yosuke tumbled backwards, hit his head on the edge of the stage nearby with a sickening crack, then slumped over lifelessly sideways.

Souji stared slack-jawed at the scene for a good half minute before realizing that Yosuke wasn't moving. He ran towards the body, and after a while, he heard Kanji's heavy footsteps and Teddie's squeaking steps follow.

"Is he," Kanji said, then hesitated. "Is he okay? I mean, that was a nasty sound."

Teddie peered at the stage while Souji checked Yosuke's pulse. "Ooo, there's blood! Is it Yosuke's?"

Souji and Kanji whipped their heads towards the stage as Rise shouted at them with her Persona.

"Guys! Is Yosuke-senpai all right?!"

"I think he has a head injury," Kanji said. Souji looked down at Yosuke's body. There were, he knew, signs to tell if a person had a concussion. Unfortunately, the ones he knew all required the person in question to be conscious.

He glanced at Teddie, who seemed to understand what he want.

"All right, Rise-chan, get ready," he proclaimed proudly. "I'm getting us out of here!"

With a growl, he cast Traesto and teleported the three of them and the unconscious Yosuke to the entrance. As soon as they arrived, the girls began fussing over Yosuke, with Teddie trying to help by making unhelpful comments. Eventually, the bear was dragged away by Chie as Yukiko revived and healed Yosuke.

"Man, senpai," Kanji said, rubbing the back of his head. "Yosuke-senpai has the worst luck."

Souji sighed.

\----

The fourth time was a trap. Void Quest's teleporters and trick panels were slowly but surely driving everyone mad, and even Rise couldn't keep track of where all of them would lead.

"Try going left here," she said. "Assuming that the panel in front of you doesn't spin."

It spun.

"All right," Rise said as the four of them stood awkwardly on the panel. "Give me a moment to figure out everyone's position."

As they waited, Yosuke put on his headphones and began tapping his feet to the beat of the music, accidentally stepping on Chie's feet in the process. He turned to apologize, but Chie elbowed him before he could get a word out. He stumbled and stepped off the panel.

"Yosuke-senpai," Rise began, but Yosuke continued to stumble, stepped on another trick panel, and the three of them watch in mute horror as he spun around at high speed, then was thrown off the panel and further down the hall where he fell.

Into a hole.

A hole that wasn't there until he stepped on it.

"Yosuke-senpai," Rise screeched, and Souji winced from the volume. "Oh my god! He's on the floor before us! He— That was a huge distance to fall!"

"Oh my god," Chie said, and she took off.

"No, Chie-senpai! I haven't figured out which direction—"

It took them forty minutes to reach Yosuke, and Souji and Chie were both feeling too nauseous to do anything. Teddie, thankfully, seemed to have been recharged from spinning around so much, and he cheerfully reached inside his suit to pull out a jar of life balm and pour it all over Yosuke's body.

"H-hey," Chie said to Souji as Teddie began to massage it into Yosuke's clothes. "That was a pretty long fall. He isn't... You know... Actually dead?"

Souji stared at Yosuke. Teddie was getting the balm all over his suit instead of on Yosuke, and Souji bit back a wave of nausea to walk towards the two of them and kneel down. Right as he was about to search for a pulse, Teddie ran back and then bellyflopped on Yosuke.

"Ow! You stupid bear, what the hell?!"

Souji could hear Chie's sigh of relief echo his.

\----

The fifth time was just mean. They were on the eighth floor of the laboratory, confident and ready to find Naoto and rescue him, when a laser almost hit them.

"What the hell?!" Yosuke said before another one nearly hit Yukiko.

"You have got to be shitting me," Kanji mumbled, batting a laser beam away—that wasn't supposed to be possible in accordance to the laws of physics—with his shield. "The hell's wrong with that kid? I swear, as soon as I find him, I'm gonna—"

What Kanji was going to do Yosuke never found out, because at that moment, he managed to dodge one beam only to end up in the direct path of another.

It was incredibly mean, Souji thought. Yosuke was doing a better job dodging them than any of the others, so if even he could get taken down...

"Now's not the time to think about those things," Yukiko cried out. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Aw, hell, this sucks!" Kanji roared before throwing his shield at the ceiling. It hit something that emitted large green sparks, but the lasers stopped.

The three of them stared at the shield, now lodged into the ceiling.

"Huh, throwing my shield works. Who'd a thunk it?"

Souji sighed and dumped a jar of life balm on Yosuke's head.

\----

The sixth time, Yosuke fell off a giant beanstalk. The stairs in heaven couldn't be called those in good conscious, and deciding to at least arrive at the fifth floor before they quit for the day was, looking back, a stupid decision.

So when Yosuke yelped as he lost his grip and plummeted down the bean stalk, Souji decided to chase after him by sliding down the plant as quickly as possible. As quickly as possible wasn't as fast as Yosuke's falling speed, however, so Souji ignored Kanji and Naoto's shouts and decided to fall as well. Right before Yosuke hit the ground, Souji summoned Garuda and hoped the Persona would be able to catch them both.

It did. Kind of. It caught Souji just fine, but only managed to get Yosuke's legs. Yosuke screamed, hit his head hard against the beanstalk, and by the time they were on the ground, had ceased to move.

"Senpai," Naoto said as she and Kanji half-slid and half-climbed down after them, "that was an incredibly reckless decision, and one that I cannot allow you to ever repeat—"

Souji looked up at them from where he was on the ground, two fingers on Yosuke's wrist.

"E-er, yes," Naoto said, patting her pockets. "I have a Goho-M right here."

Souji let Teddie and Yukiko fuss over Yosuke as he looked towards the Velvet Room door. That was what he got for deciding he didn't need a Persona with revival skills.

\----

The seventh time, Yosuke refused to go with them at all.

"Nope," he said, crossing his arms and glaring at Souji. "Every time I go with you, I always almost end up dying."

Souji stared at him.

"Not only that, but I've been with you every time we've been in here. Give someone else a chance for once, okay?"

Souji stared at him.

"Besides, I had a terrible day at work yesterday, and I'm tired and out of it, so it'd be best for the team if someone else went with you."

Souji stared at him.

"I-I mean, we have to catch Adachi, right? That's more important than anything else! Like me coming with you."

Souji stared at him.

"Take Naoto with you! She's a detective! She'll be loads more useful than I will when you find him!"

Souji stared at him.

"OH FINE," Yosuke yelled, throwing his hand up into the air. "I'll come with you, you stubborn bastard. But I swear, if something happens—"

Yosuke slipped on a poster and tripped, landing head first on the corner of the lone chair in the middle of the room.

"Samarecarm," Yukiko and Teddie said at the same time.

\----

The eighth time they all died for Souji.

It wasn't fair. He didn't want to be alone. He would've rather died than be alone.

It wasn't fair. He didn't want to fail. He would've rather suffered pains a hundred times worse than loneliness than to have failed them.

He understood why they pushed him out of the way. He understood why it was so important that he went on, even if it meant going on without them.

But it wasn't fair. He could remember their faces as they shoved him out of the way. Kanji's look of determination, Yukiko's plea of success, Teddie's look of hope, Yosuke's firm resolution... Yosuke, who'd almost died so many times, taking the last blow because it mattered, it was important, that Souji moved on...

It wasn't fair.

He was tired.

He just wanted to sleep. 

In the edges of his vision, blurred by endless fog, he saw blue.


End file.
